Stop building new museums and fix the ones we’ve got, says report

 Britain should stop building museums to ensure that the ones that we have can survive, a Governmentcommissioned review has found.

Institutions are struggling to make ends meet and, rather than investing in new infrastructure, money should be used to fix old buildings that house collections or help digitise collections for the modern age, it concludes.

The review, the first of the sector in more than a decade, also recommends that the myriad Government organisations funding the sector work more closely together and draw up an action plan and that museums should diversify, including partnering with local schools and health bodies.

While welcoming parts of the review, Alistair Brown, the policy officer for the Museums Association, said: “It is really noticeable that no new money came out of the review. There is definitely a gap between the Government ambition on this and what it is actually setting out to deliver.”

Museums are now visited by more than half of adults at least once a year. But despite this success, the review – led by Neil Mendoza and published in November – found that total Government funding has remained largely flat for the past decade: last year it is estimated that the Government provided £844million.

Mr Mendoza told The Daily

Telegraph: “Because of the National Lottery, over the past 20 years an enormous amount of money has gone into museums – £2billion – which is fantastic. A lot of that has gone into new museums and the next stage is to consolidate and invest in the museums that we have.”